Annual AdFocus Awards 2015 winners

November 26, 2015

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M&C Saatchi Abel was named Agency of the Year at the 2015 Annual AdFocus Awards. The awards event took place on Wednesday night. 25 November 2015, in Rivonia, Johannesburg.

The Agency of the Year Award is the only one chosen jointly by the Annual AdFocus jury and by agencies themselves. The winner may come from any agency category. M&C Saatchi Abel was rewarded for its business growth, client retention, awards and industry recognition.

In the final vote, it narrowly beat out the King James Group, which was earlier named Large Advertising Agency of the Year. Medium Advertising Agency of the Year was Y&R Cape Town and Small Agency of the Year was OpenCo, part of the TBWA group.

Media veteran Tony Koenderman received the Lifetime Achievement Award for 35 years of contribution to the marketing and advertising industry. Gil Oved and Ran Neu-Ner, co-founders of the The Creative Counsel — South Africa’s biggest-turnover agency — were recognised as Industry Leaders of the Year.

Grid Worldwide Branding and Design scooped the Branding and Design Agency of the Year award ,and public relations specialist Burson-Marsteller Africa won the African Agency Network of the Year award.

Gloo@Ogilvy was Digital Agency of the Year. Sports sponsorship agency Playmakers SA was presented with the Specialist Agency of the Year award. Vizeum SA became Media Agency of the Year.

Partnership of the Year went jointly to HDI Youth Marketeers and Pick n Pay. Sarah Mitchell, a student from the Vega School of Brand Leadership in Durban, won the Student of the Year award.

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